Method and apparatus for treating water comprising the steps of passing a variable flow of relatively alkaline water upwardly through a bed of organic hydrogen-zeolite and augmenting said flow by hydrogen-zeolite treated water



J J. FELSECKER 2,412,328

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING WATER COMPRISING THE STEPS OF PASSING A VARIABLE FLOW OF RELATIVELY ALKALINE WATER UPWARDLY THROUGH A BED OF ORGANIC HYDROGEN-ZEOLITE AND AUGMENTING SAID FLOW BY HYDROGEN-ZEOLITE TREATED WATER Filed April 1:5, 1944 Z 7 [0 (Z! /.Z6 I 7b Ila/0 6 f ABSORBER HZ j WAIT)" 7 u 1,1 ff/IW WATER j INVENTOR. John J Fadeec/zez;

Patented Dec. 10,

UNITED METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING WATER COMPRISING THE STEPS OF PASS- ING A VARIABLE FLOW OF RELATIVELY ALKALINE ,WATER UPWARDLY THROUQH A BED OF ORGANIC HYDROGEN-ZEOLITE AND AUGMENTING SAID FLOW BY HY- DROGEN-ZEOLITE TREATED WATER John J. Felsecker, Calumet City, 131., assignor to Graver Tank & Mfg. Co., Inc, a corporation of Delaware Application April 13, 1944, Serial No. 530,886

2 Claims. 1

This invention relates to liquid treatment, and particularly to the softening or demineralizing of water by organic zeolite softeners.

It is an object of this invention to increase the efliciency of such zeolite softeners, which efficiency may be expressed in terms of grains of minerals removed from the water by each cubic foot of the zeolite material, in each operating cycle pursuant to regeneration with a certain kind and amount of regenerating fluid.

Another object is to reduce the so-called ,color throwing of such zeolite softeners, that is, the releasing of color from the zeolite material into the waterbeing treated; particularly in the event that the temperature, or'the alkalinity, or pH of the water is relatively high. A further object is to pass a flow of the wate to be. treated upwardly through a bed of organic zeolite, and to augment said flow at least at some times by water recirculated from a point past the zeolite bed, so that the flow is rapid enough at all times to suspend the organic zeolite of the bed, but not so rapid as to entrain the organic zeolite of the bed, whereby the efliciency of thezeolite is increased and the color throwing decreased.

Still other objects will appear froi'nthe following discussion:

Both upfiow softeners and organic zeolite softeners are well known, and no claim is made for such a softener or zeolite, as such. It is also known that each kind of softener, and of zeolite material, has certain advantages as well as disadvantages.

The chief advantage of organic zeolite is that it can withstand the action of acid. As a result, it can be used to treat awater of extremely low pH. It can even be regenerated by acid. whereby it is put in the so-called hydrogen cycle and allows the demineralizing of the water. However, the organic zeolites known at the present time have the disadvantage that they tend to throw a color. This color may be a light yellow to a deep brown; the intensity increases-with the pH and temperature of the water and is furthermore proportional to the time of contact between zeolite and water, or inversely proportional to the rate of flow of the water through the zeolite.

Upfiow softeners have two main advantages over. downflow softeners: they tend to provide greater capacity,. with an identical type and amount of zeolite; and they require no backwash, incident to regeneration. However, in case of variable flow rates, upflow softeners are much less eflicient and sometimes practically inoperable.

The temperature of the water enters into this situation also. Depending on the rate and temperature of the water flowing upwardly through the zeolite bed, this bed will be expanded to a variable extent. Obviously, the softener has to be high enough to accommodate the maximum expansion to be expected; and it might seem that no difflculties could follow so long as suflicient height of the softener tank is provided. Actually, however, particular difllculties are encountered in case of low flow rates. Such rates fail to expand the zeolite bed. As a result there is a tendency of the water to channel through the zeolite bed as soon as the flow rate falls below a certain limit. As a result, the water then escapes,

practically untreated. It is inherent in any upward filtration that such channeling occurs at certain points; the exact points, of course, being dependent on numerous factors, including specific weight, size, surface area and shape of granules; flow rate, temperature, and viscosity of the liquid,

etc.

These various characteristics ofthe zeolite granules and of the water flowing through the same are dependent on numerous requirements, which need not be described herein. As a result, it was found that, generally speaking, channeling is avoided in upfiow softeners using siliceous zeolite so long as the flow rate amounts to at least 2 80 to 3 gallons per minute per square foot of the zeolite bed; this figure of 2 or 3 gallons being an average, and the-exact, minimum rate depending mainly on the specific weight of the particular kind of zeolite used.

The organic zeolites known to the art are lighter than'the siliceous zeolites. In downflow softeners, this fact has good and bad results; it

' efiect and economy of softeners and zeolites by allows a saving in backwash flow rate, but constitutes a danger in case of relatively high backwash rates or low temperatures of the backwash water. i

It has occurred, to me that the inherent feature of lowerspecific weight of the organic zeolite is a special advantage of'thls material in upflow softeners, since it lessens the tendency to channel with relatively low rate upward flows. Accordingly, it can beexpected that the balance of advantages and disadvantages is more favorable for upflow softeners using organic zeolites than for other upflow softeners.

It is an object ofthis invention to improve the making use .of the facts stated above.

r In the following, reference will be had to the I drawing, the sole figure of which is a diagram of flow distributing underdrain 2, supporting a bed a of organic zeolite. This zeolite is identified by the letters ,HZ, the letter Z" standing for 8 lite, and the letter H" indicating that the zeolite is in a-hydrogen cycle.

Top and bottom pipes 4 and 5 enter the tank, in upper and lower parts of the tank respectively, and are connected to top and bottom cross.- fittings 6 and I respectively. The hard water inlet pipe 8 is connected'with the bottom fitting I, through a valve 9. The outlet pipe I0 is connected to the top fitting 6 through the valve II, and leads to the usual acid absorption or degasification unit (not shown) which can be combined with the hydrogen zeolite softener in well known manner; or insome cases, particularly with organic sodium softeners, the treated water may flow to the point of use or storage direct.

A pump l2 has its discharge pipe l3 connected to the bottom fitting 1 through a valve I4, while the pump suction pipe I5 is connected to the top fitting 6, through a valve I6.

The fittings B and 1 have additional outlet connections l1 and I8 respectively, communicating with conventional piping, fittings, valves, and equipment for regenerating purposes (not shown). In a hydrogen. zeolite plant, a source of diluted acid (not shown) will generally be included in the connections communicating with the top fitting 6.

In operation, the water to bev treated flows through the pipes 8 and 5, into the softener tank I, upwardly through the bed 3 of organic zeolite, to be collected as treated water above this. bed and withdrawn through the pipes 4 and H). The rate of upward flow is such that the bed of zeolite is expanded, whereby the top level of the bed is raised from the plane l9 to. a Plane .20; the plane or level I9 being that which is formed when the zeolite is allowed to settle down in the tank, in the absence of a zeolite expanding fiow,

' and the level or plane 20 being one which provides substantial expansion-while avoiding entrainment of zeolite material into the top outlet 4. Due to this upward fiow and expansion, the granules of the zeolite are lifted, and separated from one another, so that the water can contact and wash each granule from all sides, whereby the relatively high capacity inherent in upfiow softeners is utilized, and the retention of dirt on the zeolite granules is prevented.

In order to prevent the rate of upward flow from falling below the critical minimum rate at which channeling starts, I make use of the pump I2 and valves l4 and I6. Whenever the flow rate in the main flow circuit defined by the supply pipe 8, zeolite bed 3, and outlet pipe l0 falls below the critical limit, I add a flow in the recirculating circuitdefined by the top pipe 4, suction pipe l5, pump l2, discharge pipe l3, bottom pipe 5, and

' zeolite bed 3, thereby augmenting the flow in the aforementioned main flow circuit, and providing metal rate of upward. fiow above the critica t.

Thiscan be achieved in a number of different ways. The pump l2 may be at rest until such recirculation is needed, or it may be running continuously. In either event, at least one of the valves [4 and [6 should be closed until recirculation is required, in order to avoid by-passing of raw water around the zeolite bed, and excessive expansion of the zeolite bed in case of maximum flows through the inlet pipe 8. However, when,

a. low rate of the main flow through the inlet pipe 8 is observed, the said recirculating circuit should be opened and the pump'either started or allowed to continue in operation When high rates of the main fiow occur, the recirculating fiow should be checked, for instance by slowingup the pump, or closing the valves l4 and I6.

. automatically by In some instances, the recirculation may be go'verned to be inversely proportional to the flow of raw water through the pipe 8; or it may be governed so as to provide a substantially uniform top level 20 of the expanded zeolite bed 3. In order to govern the recirculating rate properly, either of the valves M or I6 should be constructed so that it can be. used as a throttling valve. The throttling may be effected manually, or by suitable automatic devices (not shown) The other valves, including Nos. 9 and II, may be ordinary shut-ofi valves.

The opening and closing of the several'shut-off valves, again, may be performed manually, or suitable timing devices (not shown) It will be understood that the vital danger of channeling can be avoided by this recirculating -the upward flow softener, which are safely This advantage is particularly outspoken in the.

case that the organic zeolite is used ina hydrogen cycle. In softeners using organic ze'a'lite in a hydrogen cycle, even a highly alkaline raw water is rendered acid at once, as it hits a freshly regenerated zeolite bed. As a result, at that time no color throwing, or only a very small and unobjectionabledegree thereof tends to occur. However, as the treatment goes on, the acidity of the efiluent tends to fall off.

In downfiow softeners on the hydrogen cycle, the treatment immediately after regeneration occurs mainly in the top layer of the zeolite, but later on during the softening cycle, the bulk of the treatment occurs in the lower part of the zeolite bed. From this time on, an alkaline water passes thru the top layer, if the raw water is alkaline in nature. In that event, the color throwing is substantially increased towards the later parts of the softening period without any change of the rate of downward fiow.

This color throwing is also increased by pressure on the zeolite bed. Such pressure is always present in downfio 'softeners, and tends to increase as the downward flow causes the bed to pack. I

The upfiow softener as proposed herein tends to produce an average, low degree of color throwing, substantially uniformly throughout the service, since packing is eliminated and substantially no layers are allowed to be formed. As a result,

'while color throwing in some instances is not entirely elimifiated this upfiow always eliminates the most intense color.

This is generi 5 I claim: I 1. Method of water treatment comprising the steps of passing a variable flow of a relatively aikaline water into and upwardly through a bed of organichydrogen zeolite, and augmenting said flow by hydrogen-zeolite treated'water recirculated from a point past said zeoiite bed, so as to expand said zeolite bed to a substantially uniform level, while reducing the alkalinity of the water passing into said bed. v

2. Apparatus for water tre entcomprising pipe connected to 

